Abstract

Gunnar Myrdal urged economists to disclose their ideological sensibilities, to mitigate asymmetric-information problems in scientific discourse and to reduce the hazard of bias. Myrdal’s plea informs us of the importance of frank discussion of ideological sensibilities, including investigations of the ideological character of people involved in the American Economic Association. This paper reviews the results of several such investigations, including new results on rates of AEA membership by voter category.